The winner

Most people's idea of a Hollywood blockbuster is a massively budgeted film with significant amounts of production scale, action and visual effects, probably based on a major property such as book, toy, video game or comic book. Ted, a comedy about a talking teddy bear, isn't it. But there was everything blockbuster-sized about the film's UK opening box office: £9.33m, including £3.40m in Wednesday/Thursday previews. That's not quite the heady heights of Avengers Assemble (£15.78m, including £2.55m in previews) or The Dark Knight Rises (£14.36m), but it's not far off The Amazing Spider-Man (£11.09m, including £4.33m previews) and is level with Prometheus (£6.24m).

It's extremely rare for a comedy to open at this level, especially one featuring original characters that isn't based on established material. The Hangover debuted with £3.19m including £444,000 in previews in 2009, while June 2011 saw Bridesmaids kick off its run with £3.44m including £1.03m in previews. Comedy sequels have delivered bigger numbers, notably Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (£10.44m including £3.31m in previews) and The Hangover: Part II (£10.41m, including £2.03m in previews). Top opening for a comedy is The Inbetweeners Movie (£13.22m, including £4.57m in previews), but that had the advantage of a significant brand name.

Assuming Ted goes on to achieve the success you'd project from such an opening, it will probably be the only blockbuster-sized hit in UK cinemas this year based on original material, if you count Prometheus as part of the Alien franchise. So far, all nine films that have crossed the £20m barrier – Avengers Assemble, The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, Ice Age 4, Prometheus, The Hunger Games, Men in Black 3, The Woman in Black and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel are sequels or based on a comic book, novel or stage play. Likely to join them later in the year are The Hobbit, Skyfall, the final Twilight film and Madagascar 3: all sequels, or based on books, or both. If Pixar's Brave matches Wall-E (£22.9m) rather than Cars (£16.5m), then that will be the only other £20m hit this year featuring wholly original characters.

The next tier of 2012 UK hits are all, likewise, based on established elements: War Horse (£18.6m), The Muppets (£16.8m), American Pie: Reunion (£16.8m), The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (£16.4m) and Snow White and the Huntsman (£15.7m). The biggest hit so far this year based on original material is The Dictator, with £11.4m. Below that are The Iron Lady (£9.9m) and The Artist (£9.8m).

While the adult-skewing Dark Knight Rises sits impressively in second place, and has now cracked £40m after only 17 days of release, the four titles below it are all scrapping fiercely for the family audience. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, with £1.54m, has opened comfortably ahead of previous instalment, 2011's Rodrick Rules (£1.48m, including £380,000 in previews), as well as 2010's original Wimpy Kid (£671,000 including £238,000 in previews). Ice Age 4: Continental Drift (down just 21% from the previous weekend) and Dr Seuss' The Lorax (31%) both posted strong holds, but the real story is how they are performing midweek, during the current school holiday. Over the past seven days, Ice Age 4 added £3.45m and The Lorax £2.80m. The Ice Age film has just overtaken Prometheus to be the year's fourth biggest hit, and should soon edge out The Amazing Spider-Man for third place.

With a debut of £820,000, Pixar's Brave has made what at first sight seems a lacklustre start to its run, but of course that's from Scottish, Irish and Northern Irish cinemas, where earlier school holidays necessitated a different release date. The film arrives in England and Wales on 13 August. Based on the assumption that the territories it's playing usually account for 15% of UK and Ireland box office, Brave's opening equates to £5.5m. A note of caution: since Brave has exceptional local appeal in Scotland, normal assumptions might not apply. Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, which opted for a similar Scottish/Irish initial rollout, debuted with £853,000. Pushed back into 187 cinemas, Mirror Mirror returned to ninth place in its 18th week of release.

The arthouse market

Unless you count Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike, the top arthouse title is once again Searching for Sugar Man, with a solid hold, down just 10%, albeit boosted by an increased screen count. With £164,000 after just 10 days of release, the film has already passed the lifetime totals of such acclaimed music documentaries as Anvil! The Story of Anvil! (£157,000), Dig! (£115,000) and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (£111,000). In fact, it's rare for music docs that don't contain a significant portion of performance to work at the box office, the recent Marley (£954,000) being a notable exception. Including concert-based titles, top performer is Michael Jackson: This Is It (£9.8m).

The future

Despite significant competition from the Olympics on TV, with 17 million tuning in for the men's 10,000m final on Saturday, and 20m watching the 100m final on Sunday, it was boom time for cinemas all weekend. The sixth-best frame of the past year delivered grosses 47% up on the equivalent period from 2011, when Super 8 and Mr Popper's Penguins were the top new releases. Takings are also 51% above average for the year. That momentum looks unlikely to continue, since both Brave and The Bourne Legacy don't arrive until Monday 13 August, leaving Step Up 4: Miami Heat to do the heavy lifting this coming weekend. Alternatives include British revenge drama Offender, Fernando Meirelles' 360, and Jackpot, the latest twisted crime tale adapted from a book by Norway's Jo Nesbo (Headhunters).